Forms: 6 cochee, (coch, coyche, cosche), 6–7 coche, coatch(e, 6– coach. [In 16th c. coche, a. F. coche (masc., in 16th c. occas. fem.). Found since 16th c. in nearly all European langs.: cf. Sp. and Pg. coche, It. cocchio, Wallachian cocie; Ger. kutsche (in 16th c. also kotsche), Du. koets; Boh. koč, Pol. kocz, etc. All originally from Magyar kocsi, formerly also written kotsi, (pronounced kotſi), ‘ungaricum currum [quem] kotczi vulgo vocant’ (anno 1560), used in Hungary from the reign of King Matthias Corvinus, 1458–90. Kocsi is in form an adjective, meaning app. ‘of Kocs (kotſ)’ a place south of Komorn, between Raab and Buda; the full original name (still used in 18th century) being kocsi szeker i.e., ‘Kocs cart’ (car, wagon), rendered in Lat. in 1499 cocius currus, in 1526 currus kotsi. Hence, also, the early equivalents in other langs.: Boh. kočí vȗz (Kotsh car), shortened to koči, koč; Ger. 16th c. cotschie- or cotschy wagen, cotzie wagen, gotschiwagen, gutschiwagen, shortened to gotschi, gutschi, gutsche, kotsche, kutze, kutsche; earlier Du. kotsie-, koetsie-, koets-waghen, shortened to kotsie (Kilian), koetsie, koets. Cf. also 16th c. Eng. cochee. The Sp., Pg. and F. coche, were app. immediately from 16th c. Ger. kotsche.
See full historical details collected by Hildebrand in Grimm, s.v. Kutsche.]
1. A large kind of carriage: in 16th and 17th centuries, usually a state carriage of royalty or people of quality (still occasionally used, as e.g., the Lord Mayor’s coach); now, usually, a large close carriage with four wheels, with seats inside, and several outside, used for public conveyance of passengers (see STAGE-COACH). Hence to take coach (obs.).
It does not appear certain what was the precise new feature that distinguished the Hungarian kocsi, and led to its adoption throughout Europe. A German picture of ‘ein ungerische gutsche,’ after 1550, shows it still without covering, and not suspended on springs. (Hildebrand in Grimm.)
1556. Sir P. Hoby, Let. fr. Bisham, Berks., in Burgon, Life Gresham (1839), I. 483. Peradventure my Lady … cannot ride. Thereto will I provide this remedy,—to sende her my coche.
1561. Daus, trans. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573), 251. They haue their horselitters, Cochees, and charettes right notable.
1562. Diurnal of Occurr., 4 May. My Lord Arrane was convoyijt in the quenis graces cosche.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, Conclus. (Arb.), 313. Aniceris … a very actiue … man in driuing of a Princes Charriot or Coche.
1589. R. Robinson, Gold. Mirr. (1850), 57. Her coyche was burn’d, that day she married was.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. iv. 16. The roiall Dame … for her coche doth call.
1606. Dekker, Sev. Sinnes, IV. (Arb.), 31. In euery street, carts and Coaches make such a thundring.
1615. Stow, Eng. Chron., Jas. I an. 1605 867/2. In the yeere 1564 Guylliam Boonen, a dutchman, became the Queene’s Coachmanne, and was the first that brought the vse of Coaches into England…. Lastly, even at this time, 1605, began the ordinary vse of Caroaches.
1621. Sir R. Boyle, in Lismore Papers (1886), II. 20. I … took back the bay gelding … for my coche.
1674. C. Cotton, Fair One of Tunis, 167. My Aunt … I found ready to take coach.
1676. D’Urfey, Mad. Fickle, II. i. I’le go hire a Coach, and into the Country immediately.
a. 1689. Mrs. Behn, Unf. Happy Lady, Wks. 1718, II. 355. Sir William took coach with his Sister.
1710. Lond. Gaz., No. 4672/1. The Procession was closed by the Czar’s Coach of State.
1752. Johnson, Rambler, No. 195, ¶ 11. Euery coach that rattled through the street.
1804. Jane Austen, Watsons (1879), 297. The Edwardes were people of fortune, who lived in the town and kept their coach.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess. Self-Reliance, Wks. (Bohn), I. 36. The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.
b. With qualifications, as CURTAIN, GLASS, HACKNEY, MAIL, MOURNING, STAGE-COACH: see these; also SLOW-COACH, fig. By-coach, a supplementary or extra coach, besides the usual service (cf. Ger. Beiwagen); long coach, a coach running long stages: cf. short-stage.
1732. in Chambers, Dom. Ann. Scot., III. 408. The Stage Coach continues to go from the Cannongate for London … and if any gentleman wants a by-coach, they may call at Alexander Forsyth’s.
1802. Naval Chron., VII. 361. Many went away in the long coaches.
c. Sometimes used for the passengers by a coach.
c. 1840. ‘Will gentlemen please to alight? The coach dines here.’
d. Applied by railway employés to a railway carriage: in U.S. esp. a sleeping-car.
1866. Dickens, Mugby Junction, 26/2. We [railway officials] don’t call them carriages, we call them ‘coaches.’
1880. Webster, Supp., Coach, a railway car; applied in the U. S. especially to a sleeping-car.
2. Naut. An apartment near the stern of a man of war, usually occupied by the captain.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 3 May. The Commanders all came on board, and the council sat in the coach. Ibid. (1828), I. 94. The King supped alone in the coach.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 120. Cuddie, Fore-castle, Coaches.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, III. 304. Swab the Coach fore and aft.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Coach, or Couch, a sort of … apartment in a large ship of war near the stern. The floor of it is formed by the aftmost part of the quarter-deck, and the roof of it by the poop.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig., 107. Coach or couch. An apartment before the captain’s cabin.
3. University colloq. A private tutor who prepares a candidate for an examination.
1848. Clough, Bothie of T., Poems (1863), 113. Kitcat, a Trinity coach, has a party at Drumnadrochet.
1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, xxix. 251. Besides the regular college tutor, I secured the assistance of what, in the slang of the day, we irreverently termed ‘a coach.’
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., vi. (D.). Warham was studying for India with a Wancester coach.
1878. Examiner, 2 March, 267/2. There are two orders of private tutors—‘pass coaches’ and ‘honour coaches.’
b. transf. One who trains others for an athletic contest, esp. a boat-race.
1885. Manch. Guardian, 28 March, 6/2. Mr. Bourne, thoroughly clever coach, was able to advise them from first to last. Under his careful tuition the crew have improved steadily.
1888. F. Harrison, in 19th Cent., Nov., 645. To call in professional ‘coaches’ to teach the defence of the wicket.
4. Phrases. Coach and four, and six: a coach drawn by four or six horses. Hence To drive a coach and six (or four) through (an act of Parliament, etc.).
[1625. in Crt. & Times Chas. I. (1848), I. 25. All their coaches furnished with six horses, which comes altogether now in fashion.]
1684. Otway, Atheist, V. i. Is there not a hole in my belly, that you may turn a coach-and-six in?
1700. J. Welwood, Mem. (ed. 3), 230. This man [Rice] was often heard to say, before he came to be a judge, That he would drive a Coach and Six horses through the Act of Settlement.
1726. Gay, in Swift’s Lett. (1766), II. 61. Mr. Pope … coming … from lord Bolingbroke’s in his coach and six.
1877. N. W. Lincolnsh. Gloss., Coach and six. If a person wishes to describe any small thing as very large it is common to say that it is big enough to turn a coach-and-six in.
1882. F. Pollock, in Macm. Mag., XLVI. 364/2. The art of driving a coach and four through an Act of Parliament was then practised … with far more boldness than is possible now.
5. Comb., a. attributive, as coach-body, -boot (see BOOT sb.3 4), -door, -harness, -hide, -hire, -jade, -mare, -passenger, -screw, -steed, -step, -top; b. objective and obj. genit., as coach-builder, -building, -drawer, -driver, -maker, -making, -painter, -riding sb. and adj.; c. instrumental, as coach-crowded adj.
1861. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, III. 184. He is a *coach-body maker by business.
1801. W. Felton, Carriages, I. Introd. 18. The present master *Coach-builders. Ibid., 20. The different branches appertaining to *Coach-building.
1855. Mrs. Gaskell, North & S., ii. The Germans were … very respectable coach builders.
1785. Cowper, Tiroc., 745. Some *coach-crowded door.
1756–7. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), IV. 412. Received at his *coach door by four gentlemen, two pages, and a harbinger.
1849. Southey, Comm.-pl. Bk., Ser. II. 639. Stags as *Coach-drawers.
1755. Johnson, Pref. Compounded or double words I have seldom noted…. Of thieflike or *coachdriver no notice was needed, because the primitives contain the meaning of the compounds.
1801. W. Felton, Carriages, I. Introd. 18. *Coach-harness makers.
1794. Hull Advertiser, 20 Sept., 4/1. Leather, per pound, Fine *Coach Hides 13d.
1663. Pepys, Diary, 14 June. 15s. is to go for the *coach-hire for her.
1711. Swift, Lett. (1767), III. 247. Three shillings coach-hire to-day.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., vii. 79. I have no money for coach-hire?
1616. Pasquil & Kath., III. 167. *Coach-Jades, and Dogs, are coupled still together.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. iv. 69. The Ioyner Squirrel or old Grub … the Faries *Coach-makers.
1864. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., III. 230. I was at half-a-dozen coachmakers’ yards.
1615. Stow, Eng. Chron., Jas. I an. 1605. 867/2. They [coaches] grew vsuall among the nobilitie … and within twenty yeeres became a great trade of *coach-making.
1801. W. Felton, Carriages, I. Introd. 17. The art of Coach-making.
1638. Brome, Antipodes, III. ii. Item, an Elegy for Mistris Alderwoman Upon the death of one of her *Coach-mares.
1693. Lond. Gaz., No. 2845/4. *Coach-Painter in Ordinary to H.M.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 144, ¶ 5. All the Coach-Makers and Coach-Painters in Town.
1821. in W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), I. 41. A common *coach-passenger room.
1830. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I. 195. The shillings of which it is proposed to rob the *coach-riding public … the public may be robbed of a shilling in their coach-riding.
1624. Heywood, Gunaik., I. 30. These, are sayd to be her *coach-steeds.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xli. He hurried … up the *coach-steps, and into the coach. Ibid. (1840), Old C. Shop, xlviii. How are you Christopher? croaked the dwarf from the *coach-top.
6. Special combinations. Coach-book, the book in which passengers or parcels conveyed by a stage-coach are officially entered or ‘booked’; † coach-carriage, a coach: cf. coach-wagon; coach-carver, one who does the carved work on a coach; coach-clerk, a clerk at a coach-office; † coach-cloak, a travelling cloak; † coach-coffer = COACH-BOX; coach-companion = coach-fellow; coach-currier, one who supplies the leather fittings for a coach; coach-dinner, a dinner provided for travellers by stage-coach at appropriate stopping-places; coach-dog, a dog of Dalmatian breed, usually white spotted with black, kept to run in attendance on a carriage; † coach-fellow, a horse yoked in the same carriage with another; humorously of persons, a companion, mate; coach-founder, one who makes the ironwork of a coach; † coach-glass, glass used for the windows of carriages; coach-house, a building or out-house for a coach or carriage; coach-joiner, one who does the joiner-work of a carriage; † coach-leaves, folding blinds of a coach-window; † coach-master, one who lets coaches or carriages for hire; † coach-match, a chariot-race; † coach-nave, the nave of a coach-wheel; coach-office, an office where passengers and parcels are booked for a stage-coach; coach-parcel, a parcel conveyed by coach; † coach-pole, the pole of a carriage; coach-road, a road on which coaches run, especially one regularly traversed by mail-coaches; coach-roof, the top of a coach, or of the ‘coach’ in sense 2; coach-smithing, smith’s work in connection with a coach; coach-table (Naut.), the table of the ‘coach’ (sense 2); † coach-treate, see quot.; coach-trimmer, one who prepares the lace, linings, and other trimmings for carriages; coach-wagon, transl. Ger. kutchwagen, coach; see the Etymology above; coach-way = coach-road; also the part of a street or bridge on which vehicles run; coach-wise adv., in the manner of a coach; coach-woman, a woman driving a coach; † coach-wright, a coach-builder. See also COACH-BOX, -HORSE, -HOUSE, -MAN, etc.
1679. Trials of Wakeman, etc. 23. I went the fourth of September, as the *Coach Book will make it appear.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 340/1. A *Coach Carriage … ought to have but one Pole.
1723. Lond. Gaz., No. 6190/10. Thomas Nichols … *Coach-Carver.
1823. Blackw. Mag., XIV. 516. The most sensible remark … was by a witness, a *coach-clerk.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4177/4. A Cinnamon colour’d *Coach Cloak lined with blue.
1617. Markham, Caval., V. 57. He shall also haue euer in his *Coach-coffer, Hammer, Pinsers, Wimble, Chessell, and Nayles.
1589. Pappe w. Hatchet (1844), 18. A notable *coach companion for Martin, to drawe Diuinitie from the Colledger.
1845. Talfourd, Vac. Rambles, I. 231. This, unlike the furtive *coach-dinners in England, had time to be eaten.
1840. Marryat, Olla Podr., x. The phaeton was followed by a … *coach-dog.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., II. ii. 7. You, and your *Coach-fellow Nim.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 49. Holding heads together as if they were coach-fellows.
1807. Herschel, in Phil. Trans., XCVII. 228. A … plate of *coach glass 17 inches long, and about 9 broad. Its thickness … 31 two-hundredths of an inch.
1679. Prance, Narr. Pop. Plot, 14. A long Entry leading into the upper Court by the *Coach-Houses.
1820. Southey, Devil’s Walk, 8. A cottage with a double coach-house, A cottage of gentility.
1800. New Ann. Direct., 11. Baker, Robert, *Coach-joiner and Trunk-maker.
1630. B. Jonson, New Inn, II. i. You must … Drive in again, with the *coach-leaves put down, At the back gate.
1721. Lond. Gaz., No. 5923/4. William Ellis … *Coach-master.
1836. E. Howard, R. Reefer, xviii. The glass coach drove up the inn-yard of some large coachmaster.
1647. R. Stapylton, Juvenal, 12. The Flaminian way. A high-way from Rome, where they used to ride their *coach-matches.
1609. Heywood, Rape Lucrece, Wks. 1874, V. 174. To wash my *Coach-naves in my fathers blood.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, iii. Two large blue posts at the door next the *coach-office.
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., xix. I also went to the coach-office and took my place.
1811. Shelley, in Hogg, Life (1858), I. 423. A constant and animated correspondence of *coach-parcels.
1775. Sheridan, St. Patr. Day, I. ii. Such a thing … as an old *coach-pole, or a spare bed-post.
1715. Lond. Gaz., No. 5331/3. Near the Post and *Coach Road.
1807. Southey, Espriella’s Lett. (1814), III. 350. We took our seats on the *coach roof at five in the morning.
1883. J. D. Jerrold Kelly, in Harper’s Mag., Aug., 450/2. The yachtsman who intends to limit his cruising to smooth water and to good weather will get room and comfort in a shallow boat with raised coach roof.
1883. Athenæum, 21 July, 82/3. A … chapter, of practical value, on *coach-smithing.
1660. Pepys, Diary (1828), I. 99. I dined commander at the *Coach table to-day.
1617. Markham, Caval., V. 54. The draught-breadthes or *Coach treates, which extend from the breast of the Horse to the bridge tree of the Coach, must bee of exceeding strong double leather.
1722. Sewel, Hist. Quakers (1795), I. IV. 254. They were carried in a *coach-waggon to the water side.
1611. Rich, Honest. Age (1844), 49. Some [women] will care little for going to Heauen, because there is no good *Coachway.
1735. J. Price, Stone-Br. Thames, 4. A Street or Coach-way of 20 Feet broad…. The Foot-way to be raised one Foot higher then the Coach-way.
1866. Thoreau, Yankee in Canada, i. 4. Borne *coachwise along the spacious … avenues.
1865. G. F. Berkeley, My Life & Recoll., II. 120. A halt did come so suddenly that not a coachman or *coachwoman of any sort had time to hold up a hand for caution.
1876. M. Collins, Blacksmith & S., I. 98. There have been coachwomen who could drive four-in-hand.
1587. J. Harmar, trans. Beza’s Serm., 364 (T.). Built this Coch by his trusty & faithful *Cochwrights, & Carpenters.
